Minnesota Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken on Friday got public support from U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, two of the state’s most powerful Democratic women.

Both criticized Franken’s past writings before the former “Saturday Night Live” writer and actor won the DFL Party’s endorsement in June.

On Friday, Klobuchar asked Franken supporters to contribute to his campaign and McCollum urged her supporters to vote for him.

“In this year’s race for the U.S. Senate, I will be voting for Al Franken,” McCollum said.

Although Klobuchar had said some of Franken’s writings were “entirely inappropriate,” she quickly expressed support for him after he was endorsed two months ago. Franken’s past work includes a paean to porn, jokes about child abuse and a proposed joke about rape.

McCollum’s support was more in doubt.

The St. Paul congresswoman had supported Minneapolis lawyer Mike Ciresi’s Senate campaign until he dropped out in March. Two months later, McCollum led Democratic House members’ condemnation of Franken’s past work.

She said she was worried that Democratic candidates would have to defend a candidate “who has pornographic writings that are indefensible” and that “it is appalling that anyone could characterize rape, a violent and horrible crime, as a joke.”

McCollum did not say anything publicly in support of Franken after his endorsement — until Friday.

Then she said she was right to criticize Franken but had come around to support him.

“This spring, I voiced concerns about material from Al’s past career. To have remained silent when asked would have been hypocritical and dishonest. I am confident my concerns have been heard and since then I have watched Al’s campaign take steps to address these matters. Now, I believe Al and his campaign are appropriately focused on building a solid relationship with voters,” she wrote to her supporters.

McCollum said she will “campaign hard” for Franken and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama.

Franken and McCollum have spoken in person and on the phone in the past three months, Franken spokesman Andy Barr said.

“They’ve been building a relationship,” Barr said. “It was just two people who hadn’t gotten to know each other as they should have, getting to know each other better.”

Barr said he would not get into specific details of that relationship building — how often or when they spoke, what machinations produced the McCollum letter or what Franken had asked of McCollum. A McCollum staffer said the congresswoman was not available for an interview.

“It is certainly safe to say that Al has made clear to the congresswoman that he is interested in not just her support but working alongside her to win this election and to work together in Washington, and he has been very clear that that is something that he wants,” Barr said.

He said the campaign didn’t purposely time the Klobuchar and McCollum letters to be released the same day.

Franken this week also won endorsement of the Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund, the political arm of Planned Parenthood.

Officials of the reproductive rights advocacy group had also criticized Franken and said his article about porn, which appeared in Playboy magazine, “prompted much concern.”

The support from Klobuchar, McCollum and Planned Parenthood may be helpful as Franken tries to convince women — and all voters — that he is a respectful, caring person.

But some damage might have already been done. Franken lags behind incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in most polls. Both Coleman and fellow Democratic Senate candidate Priscilla Lord Faris have referred in television ads to Franken’s porn-related writings. And Franken himself has addressed the issue in a TV ad.

“I’m not proud of every joke I ever told,” he said in the ad last month.

Rachel E. Stassen-Berger was a Minnesota Capitol reporter for the Pioneer Press from 2001 to 2009 and again from 2015 to 2017.

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